Ace V. Simpson
Alan C. Herbert
Hindus, their communities, and their traditions face a wide variety of sociological challenges in assimilating into or avoiding modern secular societies. Underpinning these tensions is the fact that Hindus live and work in the world while simultaneously maintaining a separation from it. Sociological issues they may encounter include, among other things, those of identity, value, affiliation, and ethnicity. This project aims to increase the latitude of Indian studies to incorporate these social experiences of contemporary Hindu communities and adherents as they navigate life within, without, and on the fringes of their religious institutions and host communities. The project looks to redress the paucity of research into the key causes of these tensions while also identifying opportunities for dialogue and conflict resolution.
Research methods include but are not limited to standard sociological tools, such as surveys (interviews and questionnaires), field work, participant observation, case studies, experiments, ethnographies, and secondary data analysis. The research is theory-rich and multi-disciplinary, incorporating, for instance, philosophy, theology, and philology. Rather than produce data and ethnographies, the research blends experience with theory so as to illuminate trends and tensions affecting the societal lives of present and former adherents as well as the Hindu traditions themselves.
The project facilitates scholarly research on social issues among Hindus, discourse and productive interaction with and between all types of Hindu tradition and practitioner, and the developing of studies and proposals that can assist governance and policy. Among the important issues that this project addresses are social cohesion, social integration, and social identity. Examples of the kinds of issues explored are: the roles and problems of Hindu run schools, challenges in the reintegration of former resident nuns and monks into wider society, religious fundamentalism, the concerns of youth, and Hindu perceptions and responses to racism, sexism, social inequality, climate change, consumerism, and other current social conflicts.
The project contributes to:
The timeline of the project is initially three-years, after which it will be reviewed.
The proposed outcomes and events for the first year are to:
Current Project: The Resocialization into Wider Society of Former Hindu Ashram Members. Our research question is: in which senses do former full-time residential ashram members of a Hindu tradition, specifically non-Indian converts that lived in ashramas in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and New Zealand, manage identity reconstruction, societal reintegration, and member affiliation after leaving full-time membership? We have presently completed two thirds of our intended semi-structured interviews with former nuns and monks. This project will yield a journal article that will also be presented to the tradition.
Conference: On challenges associated with Hindu identity, values, traditions, ethnicity and community in tension with modern secular society and social life.
Ace V. Simpson
T +44 1895 265899 | E ace.simpson@brunel.ac.uk
Brunel University London
Alan C. Herbert
T +44 7463 138252 | E alan@ochs.org.uk
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
13 – 15 Magdalen Street, Oxford OX1 3AE.
UK Tel: 01865 304300
Regd Charity No. 1074458